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The Grim Knight
The Grim Knight is a major villain of The Batman Who Laughs miniseries of comics. He is a gun-obsessed version of Batman from the Dark Multiverse who is assisting The Batman Who Laughs with his criminal activities within Gotham City. History Origin On an unspecific version of Earth in the Dark Multiverse, young Bruce Wayne's parents were shot and killed before his very eyes by the gun-toting mugger Joe Chill, who carelessly threw his gun to the ground while searching for Martha Wayne's pearl necklace. Bruce stood there in tears before noticing the gun and picked it up while Joe Chill told him to get lost. Vengeful, Bruce refuses to leave and fires the weapon at Chill as he tried to plead for his life. Years later, Bruce had developed an obsession with using firearms and planned to use them with skills he had acquired from traveling the world to eradicate crime in Gotham City. However, Bruce felt just using these abilities was not enough when suddenly a giant bat flew through a nearby window, which Bruce shot dead and gave him the inspiration to become Batman. Bruce used his alter ego to begin a war of terror in Gotham, by first inviting the city's most wealthy and corrupt to Wayne Manor where he burned them all alive, before personally gunning down various crime lords and crime families that relied on the backing of those he killed at the manor. Afterwards, Bruce used his family's company, Wayne Enterprises, to monitor Gotham City using a satellite and booby trap every piece of technology within the city limits (which he calls "colonizing") to turn Gotham itself into a weapon only he can wield. He also managed to do this with the aid of Mayor Harvey Dent, who caved into helping Batman when he irradiated one side of his face. Unlike other versions of the Dark Knight, this Batman never had a rogues gallery since he would kill his enemies after the first encounter. He even killed the Red Hood before the incident which would have created the Joker. Eventually, Lieutenant James Gordon would attempt to trap and arrested Batman by having his men raid all of the Dark Knight's arsenals hidden in Gotham and lure Batman himself to a rooftop where Gordon can capture him using a powerful magnet. Unfortunately, Bruce is one step ahead and kills Gordon's men on the rooftop by activating explosives in their bulletproof vests before shutting down the magnet he became stuck to. Batman attacks and holds Gordon over the building's edge to hear explosions coming from the arsenals the cops were raiding, then pulls him up to witness two GCPD blimps dive bombing into Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary, killing everyone at those locations. Batman leaves the lieutenant tied up after claiming he will one day thank him for his brand of protection. Six weeks later, Lieutenant Gordon has managed to stay under Batman's radar and deduces his secret identity. Gordon then gets help from the FBI and a confession from Alfred Pennyworth before confronting Bruce Wayne in front of Wayne Manor to finally arrest him for his crimes. Bruce plays innocent at first, but soon branches a gun after hearing the accusations against him. This time, a weapon does not do Bruce any good as Gordon snatches the gun away and knocks him to the ground defeated. Eventually, The Batman Who Laughs appears and convinces Bruce to help him in his plans for Gotham City on Prime Earth as The Grim Knight. ''The Batman Who Laughs'' Miniseries Sometime after arriving on Prime Earth, The Grim Knight first appears at Arkham Asylum before two security guards who both mistaken him their world's Batman. One of the guards walked up to greet him but was immediately killed by the imposter before the villain proceeded to gun down waves of reinforcements using his own hefty arsenal. The Grim Knight soon came across Mr. Freeze's cell where Freeze commented on his behavior and tried to provide him with some helpful advice. However, The Grim Knight responded by blasting Freeze with a flamethrower before he made his way over to the Joker's cell and unlocked it. The Joker grinned as he asked The Grim Knight if he was here to kill him too. However, the gunman denied this and stepped aside to allow The Batman Who Laughs to do the deed instead. Later, it is reported that both villains killed almost everyone at the Arkham Asylum, although Mr. Freeze managed to survive The Grim Knight's attack while the person murdered by The Batman Who Laughs in Joker's cell was not the Joker, but an imposter. Batman (of Prime Earth) theorized that Laughs must have snuck The Grim Knight into their world during Barbatos' invasion of the DC multiverse and has been waiting for the right moment to use his talents. Sometime later The Batman Who Laughs invades Wayne Tower and is confronted by his Prime Earth self who quickly grounds the villain in a fight. However, this was all part of Laughs’ plan as he gives The Grim Knight (on a nearby building) the signal to shoot his attacker with a bullet containing a Bat-Taser. As Prime Batman lies wounded on the floor, Laughs reveals to him that The Grim Knight is the result of Joe Chill dropping the gun on the night of the Waynes' murder and young Bruce picking it up. Years later, that Bruce would weaponize Wayne Enterprises and manufacture all sorts of lethal equipment to booby-trap the city with; becoming a deadly version of Batman who is at total war with his enemies. Laughs then proceeds to activate a special protocol designed to destroy Wayne Tower with a controlled implosion while mentioning that all other safety protocols that would have prevented the loss of innocent lives were disabled by The Grim Knight a couple of days prior. After the destruction of Wayne Tower, The Grim Knight is sent to kidnap Commissioner Gordon as part of Laughs' plan to poison Gotham City. Arriving at his destination, The Grim Knight finds his Prime Earth counterpart with Gordon and barely misses shooting him unawares. Batman quickly grabs his grapple gun and hooks The Grim Knight to a passing train, but the villain breaks free just as trucks block Batman's escape route. The Grim Knight reveals to Batman that back on his world, he has turned all of Gotham into his "Batcave" and rigged the entire city, from its grid to its vehicles, to serve as his "colony". He has even begun to "colonized" parts of Prime Earth's Gotham as well and tells Batman that either Gordon comes with him or an airplane flying above will drop from the sky then crash, killing everyone aboard. Batman complies and lets The Grim Knight take the commissioner before being warned that if he decides to follow them, there would be 72 more booby-traps for him to deal with. Later, The Grim Knight navigates Commissioner Gordon through the sewers to their destination. Gordon is lead into a room full of monitors where he realizes from the security footage that The Grim Knight had been watching him for the past year. The Grim Knight tells Gordon that he wanted to try to convince him that the system and non-lethal methods of fighting crime do not work, which was something the vigilante was unable to do with the Jim Gordon of his world. He had even fought hard to persuade The Batman Who Laughs that what he originally had planned for Gordon was not satisfying enough for either of them. However, upon seeing Jim close up, The Grim Knight now believes that he would not be able to handle what they had in store for him. Gordon tells the villain that he would continue to oppose him regardless and to just kill him if they had no more use for him. Upset, The Grim Knight was about to shoot Gordon when he was stopped by The Batman Who Laughs, as he still wanted to proceed with the current plan of making Jim suffer what he considered a fate worse than death. Later, The Grim Knight is tasked with guarding Gordon and harming him should he try to escape. However, the Knight is unable to restrain his desire for revenge anymore and decides to let Gordon go so he can hunt him down; comparing the situation to how Jim hunted him down on his world. As the commissioner ran, The Grim Knight lets loose Laughs' Dark Robins to seek him out, and reveals them to be alternate versions of Gordon's son that The Batman Who Laughs reconditioned. The Grim Knight then branches a knife and tells Jim that after Lieutenant Gordon arrested him on his world, the GCPD reinstated Gordon as commissioner and his fellow officers made him the very knife which the villain was currently holding. The Grim Knight then announces he will use it to gut this world's Commissioner Gordon and feed his insides to his Jokerized sons. Unable to flee on foot, Jim tries to escape by diving into a nearby stream, much to The Grim Knight's amusement as he claims it would make the hunt more fun. However, Gordon was soon saved from the pursuing Dark Robins by his actual son James Gordon Jr. and escaped to the Batcave with Batman's help. After The Batman Who Laughs ensured the activation of Batman's "Laugh Last" protocol (designed to protect Gotham's citizens from a biological and chemical attack), The Grim Knight gained entry into clean water reservoir used by the protocol in order to poison it. However, he was soon ambushed by Jim Gordon and his son wearing advanced Batsuits (the Batsuit from Batman Beyond) taken from the Batcave's armory. The Gordons fire a net over the villain and believed their suits would give them an edge, but The Grim Knight disables the suit's technology with his own before cutting himself free of the net. As bullets are shot towards him by his opponents, The Grim Knight taunts Jim by telling him that he does not truly care for his son because was a murderer and a psychopath. The villainous Batman reveals that on his world, James Gordon locked his son away and tried to forget about him until he eventually hung himself in his cell. Jim denies this and tries to tell James Gordon Jr. that he does love him regardless, but hesitates to bring up his criminal background. The Grim Knight manages to grab the commissioner by the throat while pointing out his reluctance, then taunts Gordon Jr. by telling him to continue and try to be a good person despite knowing that his father doesn’t believe in him. Jim tries to call to his son for help, but Junior appears to believe in the villains' words and does nothing as The Grim Knight pours a vial of Dark Matter serum into the reservoir water below them. The vigilante tells Commissioner Gordon that both his son and Gotham will no longer be held under his morals and rules before Jim manages to break away from The Grim Knights grasp, causing him to drop his knife into the water. Both Gordons dive after a knife, but James Gordon Jr. manages to grab the weapon first while his father is pulled from the water by The Grim Knight. The villain then uses a remote and explains to the commissioner that drones will soon arrive at the reservoir to pick up its now-tainted water and spray it across the city, transforming anyone unlucky enough to drink it into the worst versions of themselves. He then dunks Jim's head into the water in an attempt to make him the first to drink from it. Drones soon appear to collect the water while The Grim Knight tells Jim if he doesn't drink, he will get his son to cut open his windpipe and tell him how good it feels. However, Commissioner Gordon refuses to open his mouth, prompting The Grim Knight to call over James Gordon Jr. to slice his throat. Instead, Junior attacks and repeatedly stabs The Grim Knight to death until his father could calm him down. The Gordons use The Grim Knight's remote to stop the drones and save the city. Although denounced to anyone, Commissioner Gordon had already ingested some of the serum. Trivia *While characters from the Dark Multiverse are very resistant to weapons from the central DC Multiverse, The Grim Knight was repeatedly stabbed with a knife he obtained from his world, meaning it is made up of Dark Matter and is effective if used against him. Navigation Category:Alternate Reality Villains Category:DC Villains Category:Batman Villains Category:Comic Book Villains Category:Male Category:Vigilante Category:Murderer Category:Obsessed Category:Assassins Category:Science Fantasy Villains Category:Right-Hand Category:Minion Category:Enforcer Category:Vengeful Category:Successful Category:Weapons Dealer Category:Kidnapper Category:Evil Vs. 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